Fresh Amour is a pink-tinted lavender with a semi-matte finish and opaque color coverage. It’s very slightly less pink compared to shades like MAC Lavender Whip, Fashion Mews, Blooming Lovely, and Quite Cute. It does tend to pull the yellowness out of teeth, though.

Potent Fig is a dark grape purple with a slightly glossy finish. The texture is different from the others, as this had a lot of slip, more shine, and went on uneven/streaky because of the additional creaminess. I can’t think of a dupe for it, as a lot of the previous purplish shades I’ve reviewed are either much darker (and more burgundy) or lighter.

Seeds of Desire is a luxurious brown tinted with red and has ruby red shimmer with a semi-matte finish. The color payoff is good with mostly opaque coverage. CoverGirl Smokyis similar but a little lighter and browner. MAC Underworld is lighter.

These felt creamier, with better slip and comfort, than previous iterations of Mattenes (I think the last time we saw them was with Style Black). I wore Delectable on half of my lips (half of the upper/half of the lower) with Eden Rouge on the other side, because I like to test shades from both the lighter and darker ends of the spectrum to get a handle on the length of wear. Delectable wore off within three hours, while Eden Rouge wore about five. I think the increased slip and creaminess of the formula has reduced the wear time by a bit–at least in these shades.

I didn’t see anything in the marketing/press release on these about them being long-wearing but did glean that they are supposed to be soft enough to glide-on with semi-matte finishes, intense color, and moisturizing. They’re far more moisturizing than the average matte lipstick. After wearing the two I tested for wear, I did want balm, but I didn’t feel like my lips were cracking or dry. These are packaged in slim tubes with matte black on the outside and a shiny rim around the middle. They only contain 0.08 oz., which is less than their regular lipsticks, which are 0.10 oz.

Honestly, this collection has “permanent” written all over it yet everything is limited edition. The shades of the Mattenes seem so core and basic (which is not a criticism) that they would make for an excellent permanent selection of colors in the Mattene formula, which I think many readers have enjoyed over time. I really do feel some improvement went into these new shades. The only one that I had major issues with was Potent Fig.